Monday, January 13, 2014

Woot! 2 more corporations leave ALEC!

Two more corporations, XCel Energy and Endo Health, have decided to wash the stink of ALEC off their reputations and resigned their membership. That makes 72 corporations that have cut ties to the group that lobbies to destroy the middle class.

You'd think politicians would get the idea and start distancing themselves from ALEC and its odious policies -- you know, because so many politicians are owned by corporations. There's one politician in Missouri, though, who not only keeps his membership but tells the truth about ALEC's agenda: To lower wages!

His name is Ed Emery, and he's a state senator and ALEC state co-chair. Progress Missouri tells us he actually admitted right-to-work-for-less lowers wages:

ALEC Co-Chair and State Senator Ed Emery finally admitted yesterday what proponents of so-called 'right to work' laws have long been trying to hide from the public, that the legislation would result in lower wages for the middle-class.

Here's what he actually said:

One of the things that will be advocated by the unions is look at all these right to work states, average wages all go down. Sure they go down.

The spokesperson attempted to distance the company from ALEC, complaining, "if you’ve been affiliated once, then they’ll brand you for life."

And Endo responded to investor pressure to cut ties to ALEC:

According to a statement released by Trillium Asset Management, "In 2012, Trillium filed a shareholder proposal at Endo on behalf of our clients, including the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, pressing the company on lobbying spending disclosure and its affiliation with ALEC. . . . Endo has recently informed Trillium that it is no longer a member of ALEC and has stopped providing any financial support to the organization."

Trillium said 'the broader social importance of this is in alignment with shareholder interests.'